Casualty Figures

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American Death Tolls in Various WarsRevolutionary War (1775-1783) 4,435

War of 1812 (1812-1815) 2,260Mexican-American War (1846-1848) 13,283

Civil War (1861-1865) 678,753Spanish-American War (1898) 2,446

World War I (1917-1918) 116,708World War II (1941-1945) 407,316Korean War (1950-1953) 36,914

Vietnam War (1964-1973) 58,169Persian Gulf War (1991) 269

Breakdown of Union and Confederate CasualtiesCasualties Union Confederate

Killed or mortally wounded in action 110,100 94,000Died of disease 224,580 164,000

Died as prisoners of war 30,192 31,000Other non-battle deaths 24,881 ~

Total Deaths 389,753 289,000Wounded in action (but lived) 275,175 194,026Total Casualties (1861-1865) 664,928 482,026

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Civil War Sites 1860-1865

Caring for the Injured“They would charge each other, literally pound chains down

cannons and fire point blank at the enemy and these young men were presented to their field surgeons with terrible shrapnel wounds along with terrible pain.

About all the field surgeons could do was use the two new invented tools that had been presented to him in the previous five or six years; the hypodermic needle and syringe, along with morphine… They injected the young wounded veterans with huge amounts of morphine daily (every four hours) to kill their pain… It was necessary for the surgeons to do full-quarter amputations – literally take arms and legs off right at the start of the body, usually to stop infectious gangrene…”

One doctor described the conditions in this way: “We operated in old blood-stained and often pus-stained coats, we used undisinfected instruments from undisinfected plush lined cases. If a sponge or instrument fell on the floor it was washed and squeezed in a basin of water and used as if it was clean.”

*Eruptive Disease ex. Small pox*Intestinal Disease ex. Dysentery or Cholera*Pulmonary Disease ex. Pneumonia